Unfortunately I am facing a bit of challenge right now. I have been cloth diapering for a total of 4-5 years between my 3 kids that have worn cloth. I have a HE front loader with normal to hard water. Over the years I have used Allen's (no successes...stinkies from the start), Charlie's Soap (stinkies and rash-y baby bottom), Tide (good for stink initially, then bad ammonia stink, and stiff diapers), some WAHM made detergent that didn't work at all, Tiny Bubbles (worked okay, but needed occasional stripping), RNG (amazing results with first soak, but then barn and ammonia stink with continued use), Ecos Free and Clear (barn stink out of the dryer), and Lulu's Extra Glamorous wash (ammonia stink). So I currently have ammonia stinky diapers and I am wondering what to do next.

Having tried so many detergents, I think I have to go back to something that worked okay vs. the detergents that were total fails. So, I think I am going to go back to Tiny Bubbles, but I have to get these diapers clean first. I will need to strip them...wondering if I do a soak with RNG or Oxygen Bleach or something else? Since I have a HE washer, I have found success soaking the diapers in my laundry room sink (but not sure what to soak in). Do I try RLR or maybe try Grovia Mighty Bubbles in the washing machine? I do not have bubbles in the wash and I make sure to do extra rinses.The diapers are soft, but smell off when coming out of the dryer and are stinky/ammonia when my son pees in them. Any advise from other "experts"?

Have you tried adding water or a wet towel to the washer to trick it? Bleach ever to disinfect? It sounds like they are just not getting rinsed well enough to get the detergent and bacteria out. If it were me I would try hand rinsing them in the tub first with hot water. Because even if you go back to something that works "okay" there is still bacteria in the diapers which no one wants, right?

I have added water to the washer by physically pouring water in and also by rinsing the diapers but not spinning to get them very wet and heavy (which I figure works like adding a wet towel to the wash). I have not done bleach. It scares me a bit. I hate the smell and I am so afraid that it would ruin something. I could see using it with prefolds, and inserts, but wouldn't it take out color from fitteds and ruin PUL? I just don't know how to use it.

I like to soak in oxyclean as I ruin our clothing with bleach. I read somewhere on the internet kill time for oxyclean is 6 hours in hot water so I do an overnight soak. If you do this in your sink see if you can put something on top to hold in the heat. I found it makes a difference in my diapers.

I am so glad you posted this. I have only been CDing for 2 weeks and already have 'the stink' in my Lil Joeys (that is the only AIO we have used so far - she was a premie'.

I had been washing every other day (FL too), run conf in cold twice, washing on HOT with Country Save (only 1/2 the amount as it calls for FL as I heard that was all that is needed), and then 2 extra cold rinses after that.

Did you try stripping with dawn or is that only good for helping diapers stop from repelling? I will be curious to hear what works for you or what others say.

I am so glad you posted this. I have only been CDing for 2 weeks and already have 'the stink' in my Lil Joeys (that is the only AIO we have used so far - she was a premie'.

I had been washing every other day (FL too), run conf in cold twice, washing on HOT with Country Save (only 1/2 the amount as it calls for FL as I heard that was all that is needed), and then 2 extra cold rinses after that.

Did you try stripping with dawn or is that only good for helping diapers stop from repelling? I will be curious to hear what works for you or what others say.

Thanks!!!

You should use the recommended amount of detergent. Diapers are DIRTY!

I have done the overnight soak in oxygen bleach...good idea though on trying to keep the heat in.

Right now I am finding that some of the diapers are really bad and others are not as bad so I am trying to rinse out the really bad diapers before they go in the pail. I am at a bit of a loss to figure out what to wash them in. I was using Ecos without great results and then switched to Lulu's and that seemed to make them bad, but then when I went back to Ecos it may have made it worse. I probably need to get different detergent, but not sure what to get.

amberacc - definitely add more detergent...as dncnshu00 said, diapers are dirty. And hot rinses are better at getting rid of detergent residue than cold. I believe that Dawn is good if you have repelling or other greasy build up from diaper creams or such. Dawn would make a lot of bubbles in the washer and FLs do NOT like a lot of bubbles.

Not sure if this is applicable to you, but we battled ammonia and I'll tell you what worked for us. First, we had ammonia predominately in night time diapers, this seems to be common. As part of our night combo we were using a MF insert. We removed the MF insert and replaced it with a pad-folded flat instead. This pretty much fixed the night ammonia problem. Then, I replaced our more natural detergent with All Free & Clear powder, that fixed problems with getting things clean. Like 1-2x per year I do a wash with bleach just to get things extra clean. The bleach would work perfectly well on the ammonia, but before I fixed the MF situation and went to a new detergent it would come back very quickly and I wasn't comfortable using so much bleach (like every other to every 3rd wash would need bleach).

GL, mama! Battling the ammonia/stinkies can be so frustrating!

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AP, Crunchy, Thrifty Momma to Jack (2/10) and Molly (1/13) Wife to Mark (6/08) who usually can be persuaded to go along with my crazy ideas

Don't know if I'm too late to the party, but my absolute best success with diaper detergent is with Purex F&C. We too have water that is on the hard side. Our stash is cotton and hemp pfds. I have tried many other, more highly recommended detergents,but with the Purex I've never had a problem. No stink, no EBF poop stains, I don't think I've ever even had to strip when using Purex.

We use the lowest mark on the cap, a hot wash and two cold rinses. I keep looking for a greener solution, but After this latest adventure (DS got burns from the Charlie's and now I'm trying to get it out of my dipes) I think I'll stick with the Purex until we're through with diapers!

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Petra- mommy to two beautiful daughters and one beautiful son born 10-19-13.